The school is delighted to be represented in ‘The Best School Dinners’ feature in the Echo. Below is the article, images and quotes.
Getting pupils to eat healthy food is easy, according to Headteacher Philip Bell – just make it appetising. It’s a matter of good taste!

The kids at Beauchamps School have never had it so good – as far as school dinners are concerned. Their menu looks more like the sort of thing you would expect to find in a Michelin-starred restaurant.

I certainly don’t remember being offered spicy beef pancakes, home-made salmon fishcakes with tomato relish, Cantonese style sweet and sour Quorn, Caribbean style vegetable curry or Jamaican jerk chicken, when I was at school in the Eighties and Nineties.

If the kids don’t fancy the main dishes of the day, they can also try something from the salad bar, a sandwich or a jacket potato.

Philip Bell, Headteacher, says his kitchen staff encourage healthy eating – by serving delicious alternatives to chips and other fried foods. He said: “You have to make sure the students enjoy the healthy food. Otherwise they won’t eat it. I’ve been in education for 35 years and the improvement in school dinners is unbelievable. Beauchamps started improving its food long before TV chef Jamie Oliver made Turkey Twizzlers infamous. We removed all crisps and fizzy drinks three years ago, then chocolate went two years ago. We didn’t have any problems when we stopped serving things like chips 18 months ago either. Kids adapt quickly and now they like what they are getting.”

Heather Kemp, catering manager at the school, said: “We try to have as much variety as possible and change the menu every four weeks. We also take dishes you might not think of as healthy and adapt the recipe. For example traditional chicken tikka massala is made with cream, but we use fresh yoghurt we make ourselves, instead. The school had also limited pupils’ salt intake, by removing all salt shakers from the tables and limiting tomato ketchup to sachets, rather than bottles. The children pay £1.65 for a meal, which includes a main course, served with vegetables or side salad, and a pudding or piece of fresh fruit.

Head chef Monique Kiamal says new dishes are often given away free to encourage students to give them a try. “It’s the best way to make sure they at least give them a go. For example, when we held a vegetarian week, we gave away a lot of the new recipes. Now they are some of the children’s favourites. “The kids aren’t afraid to tell us if they don’t like something, and we listen to what they have to say. We are always trying new things.”

Mr Bell said: “I think our healthy dinners show in our children. You hear about childhood obesity, but very few of our children are overweight. I have the figures and if anything they are slightly underweight.”

He agreed there was a debate over whether schools should pay an outside catering company to cook dinners, or recruit its own cooks.

He said: “I know that by sticking with a company like Scolarest (which specialises in catering for schools and colleges), the staff get all the health and safety training they need. I know Scolarest was criticised by Jamie Oliver; but I have to say the team we have here is outstanding.”

Mrs Kemp added: “Most of our staff are mums of children at the school and they’ve worked here for a long time, which means they care and that shows in our dinners.

“They’re healthy and the children really enjoy them, which is the most important thing.”